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My Doctoral research at the University of California Irvine focused on the underappreciated nuances of abstract, graphic music notation, and tested the salience of different notational forms, approaches, and contexts for grapic scores.

you may read my dissertation, and see the creative work generated

Abstract:

   This dissertation extends the investigation of the utility and function of abstract graphic music notation, through scholarly and creative practical research. Graphic notation is often situated in an ephemeral current of aleatoric music- a gig; a momentary and impulsive transaction between composers and performers, commonly focused around spontaneous interpretation. Analysis of graphic notation generally comprises artists’ statements, historicization, and intrigue for the novel and relatively obscure genre of composing. As graphic notation continues to emerge within myriad subcategories of creative music, as well as contemporary art contexts, pedagogical, and neurological research, it is important to survey its modern provisions, affordances, and socio-cultural outcomes.
 
    In this project, I first examine existing research into graphic notation, and briefly trace its emergence in contemporary music over three quarter-centuries, to demonstrate how it has and continues to address the creative and technical needs of composer-performers. I touch upon other scientific domains, specifically music education. Examples of graphically notated works are then cited and analyzed for their musical performance and/or art exhibition. From a semiotic perspective, I measure the interpretation and meaning-making of abstracted notational symbols. As a visual language, I look closely at the space surrounding its ever-evolving vocabulary. I theorize about both qualitative and quantitative valuation of interstices in the syntax of graphic notation passages. From the dynamic positioning to the contrasts in color, texture, shape, and size between abstract characters, transformational relationships are equally important for interpretation by improvising musicians. Citing successful exhibitions in the art world, I investigate the appearance of graphic notation in galleries and museums by composers and conceptual artists alike, particularly the subsequent impact on music’s ontological status and cultural reach among an expanding audience.

   A scholarly framework sets the tone for the autoethnographic account of my practical research experiments during my Doctoral tenure. The creative activity for this dissertation comprised multiple ways of using graphic notation in practice, ranging from semi-permanent art exhibitions, which doubled as performance environments, to a large-scale concert of ensemble scores,  spontaneously-generated by manipulating commercial software and graphic design techniques as an improvisational and interactive form of composition.


Concert:

   For my capstone project, I went through a number of possibilities for generating notation spontaneously, in an improvisational ensemble concert setting. The final result was a conduction of sorts, iterating pages of notation to 9 musicians on stage. As a ‘hack’ method, the ensemble was in a Zoom call, for the duration of which I shared one Adobe Illustrator file, displayed in Apple’s Preview app, constantly updating as I iterated and saved. A custom script by my friend Ezra allowed me to duplicate and save each iteration to a folder, so that the final score could be compiled. Both halves of the performance yieled approximately 115 pages.

Part 1
 

Part 2